Dave Kirk
Research Interests: Summary
As fits my background my research interests come from two different approaches, from Experimental Psychology I have interests in Gesture, Language and Distributed Cognition; and from Ergonomics I am interested in user-centred design and usability evaluation. All of these interests cross over in my chosen research field CSCW (Computer Supported Co-operative Work). I also maintain an interest in CSCL (Computer Supported Co-operative Learning). My PhD research is concerned with CSCW and considers the concept of collaborative physical tasks from a social/cognitive psychology perspective. I am investigating how technology can be used to re-represent non-verbal gesturing behaviour remotely in synchronous video communications and the benefits this can have (in terms of overall performance and linguistic efficiency) for collaboration during physical tasks. Whilst largely experimental in nature the work also encompasses an anthropological/ethnographic approach to studying the developing theory of 'mixed ecologies' which seeks to understand how technology can be designed to minimise the 'fractured ecologies' problems engendered by most common solutions to the problem of ‘object focussed’ interactions between remote locations. |