Designers of digital tools aim to make them as “seamless” as possible—such that our technology supplies us with the information we need right away, without us having to ask for it. But it’s precisely these qualities that undermine our own sense of how difficult a task is. 1/8 Image
An interesting new paper by Matthew Fisher and Daniel Oppenheimer in Psychological Science looks at what happens when our mental work is augmented by technological resources—say, using spellcheck to correct our writing. 2/8
The use of such "external sources," they found, appears to "distort metacognitive assessments of one’s own abilities." In other words, when we extend our minds with technology, we tend to lose touch with how hard the task is and what we would be able to do on our own. 3/8
This may lead us to become overconfident—to assume that we know more, or can do more, than is actually the case. Fisher and Oppenheimer found that such "errors of overconfidence" could be prevented in two ways: by introducing a delay, and by instituting active choice. 4/8
When we have to wait for assistance, or when we have to consciously choose to seek out assistance, we're led to engage in metacognition about the task. This kind of thinking helps us calibrate both our sense of the task and our sense of our own abilities. 5/8
To me, their findings are an argument for making technology LESS seamless—more "seamful," one might say.

We ourselves could choose tools, or choose settings on our tools, that force us to do more of the mental work ourselves. 6/8
While that might seem perverse, returning to ourselves some of the work that would usually done by our tech will benefit us in the end, by giving us a more accurate sense of what we actually know and can do. 7/8
Here's the paper by Fisher and Oppenheimer:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.117… 8/8

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More from @anniemurphypaul

27 Mar
Communicating via videoconference makes us LESS intelligent, as a group, than we would be if we communicated by phone with just our voices. That’s the surprising finding of a new study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. The reason why is fascinating. 1/8 Image
Research previously found that SYNCHRONY among group members—the alignment of non-verbal behaviors—promotes collective intelligence. You might think that synchrony would be easier to achieve when members can see each other—but in fact such visual cues act as distractions. 2/8
Groups that communicated using voice only paid close attention to auditory cues and achieved higher levels of synchrony. They were also more equal in their turn-taking—another factor that promotes collective intelligence. 3/8
Read 8 tweets
26 Mar
I've been reading a fascinating new book that is all about how the SPACES in which teachers and students operate affect the learning that takes place there. It includes one of my favorite anecdotes about the role of physical space in our thinking processes. 1/8 Image
After the British House of Commons was severely damaged by German bombs in 1941, Winston Churchill weighed in on plans for the reconstruction of the building, writes the book's co-editor, Thomas Kvan, in an introductory essay. 2/8
Churchill believed that the reconstructed room should retain its rectangular shape, arguing that "the narrow rectilinear form of the chamber forced debaters to take clear positions, unlike a semi-circular space that facilitated subtle nuances by displacements along an arc." 3/8
Read 8 tweets

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