A Study on Situated Cognition: Product Dissection’s Effect on Redesign Activities

Abstract

Situation cognition theory describes the context of a learning activity’s effect on learner’s cognition. In this paper, we use situated cognition theory to examine the effect of product dissection on product redesign activities. Two research questions were addressed: 1) Does situated cognition, in the form of product dissection, improve product functionality during redesign exercise?, and 2) Does situation cognition, again in the form of product dissection, affect the creativity of product redesigns? In this study, three sections of first year students in two different locations — The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) and Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T) — performed product redesign using either an electric toothbrush or a coffee maker. The redesigned products have been analyzed with respect to both depth (detail level) and creativity.

Design Computing and Cognition '14

“…Product dissection allows "examination, study, capture, and modification of existing products." The method improves form and function understanding to develop new and different ideas [66]. Functional modeling enables functionality representation, to explore alternative means to link customer needs with product function, thus generating novel solution approaches [8,67].…”

“…If more lateral than vertical, fixation can be prevented [54] Improvement of a response Calculation of fixation effects for remote associates test (RAT) subtracting the number of problems solved correctly between fixating and non-fixating stimuli conditions. [2,50] Negative features Assignation of a discrete value that ranged from 0 to 10 that corresponds to the number of neutral and negative fixation features that were found at given check-in periods [62] Fixation identification as a focus in external features (form) and lower variety [66] 614 D.P. Moreno et al transferred to transactional fields to assist idea generation and manage design fixation.…”

Exploring the Utility of Product Dissection for Early-Phase Idea Generation

“…Indeed, it is in the nature of engineers to take apart artifacts in order to satisfy their inherent curiosity of the world. Discovering the inner workings of products can serve to teach and inspire, and engineers often practice this "dissection" in order to gain design insights and identify opportunities for redesign [2]. In fact, product dissection is widely practiced throughout industry and academia as a way to understand core concepts, and gain insights into competitors' practices before conceptual design begins.…”

The implication of rapid technologies on the design process

“…Broadly speaking, fixation caused by extrinsic factors were treated by providing de-fixation instructions , or through the use of defixation materials in the form of abstract problem formulation (Zahner & Nickerson, 2010), use of partial pictorial stimulus , verbal analogy Viswanathan, 2013) or visual analogy (Casakin & Goldschmidt, 1999). Other researchers relied on having designers work in full design environments to mitigate fixation by means of incorporating physical prototyping during the conceptualization phase(Youman, 2011), or through product dissection ( Grantham et al, 2010) .Other methods such as the use of intuitive idea generation methods (Youman, 2014;, computer-assisted design (Dong & Sarkar, 2011), cognitive information feedback systems (Youman, 2005), interdisciplinary teams, and belief changing (Gordon, 1961) were also used.…”

“…Different methods have been used to treat design fixation; some trying to categorize treatment methods based on the source of fixation and implementation method (Moreno et al, 2014) while others were based on the type of fixation (Youman et al, 2014). Broadly speaking, fixation caused by extrinsic factors was treated by providing defixation instructions , or through use of defixation materials in the form of abstract problem formulation (Zahner & Nickerson, 2010), use of partial pictorial stimulus , verbal and /or visual analogy Viswanathan et al, 2013;Casakin & Goldschmidt, 1999 (Grantham et al, 2010). More methods such as the use of intuitive idea generation methods (Youman et al, 2014;, computer-assisted design (Dong & Sarkar, 2011), cognitive information feedback systems (Youman et al, 2005), interdisciplinary teams, and belief changing (Gordon et al, 1961) were also used.…”