The human-machine extended organism: New roles and responsibilities of human cognition in a digital ecology.

Abstract

Automation does not necessarily supplant human activity but rather changes it, often in ways unintended and unanticipated by the designers of automation, and as a result poses new coordination demands on the human operator. (Parasuraman, Sheridan, & Wickens, 2000, p. 286) Tool use is a fundamental aspect of the human condition. Tally sticks, clay tablets, abaci, punch cards, typewriters, and digital computers represent external media that humans have relied upon to more simply, or more efficiently, meet their intellectual and behavioral objectives. It is only recently, however, that technology has become a coequal partner in service of those cognitive goals. The partnership between physiology and technology warrants a reconsideration of what it means to be a successful agent in this environment. One perspective on this problem is provided by an analysis of the qualities of the internet: examining the various ways that technological affordances enable, constrain, and alter memory behavior. Marsh and Rajaram (2019) discuss properties of the internet that have consequences for cognition, such as its relative omniscience, widespread access, and fast information retrieval. Another perspective emphasizes the transactive nature of the relationship between human and technology: the presence of high-tech external memory devices such as the internet shapes the manner in which we can achieve our intellectual goals and, simultaneously, our queries and contributions shape the nature of the information it possesses and provides to others. How do we conceptualize the cognition of the human-machine extended organism to best understand the inherent qualities or liabilities of human memory and cognition in a digital ecology?

Integrating Media Selection and Media Effects Using Decision Theory

“…In an algorithmically personalized media environment, selection behaviors (e.g., reading an article, clicking a link, watching a video) can influence future selections via cognitive and social processes as described in extant models, but also via algorithmic processes that curate the selections that may be presented in the future (Bodó et al, 2019;Cappella et al, 2015). Furthermore, the increasingly personal, hyper-connected nature of modern digital tools facilitates deeply transactive relationships between humans and digital media that are not well-explained by traditional media selection and effects theories (Hamilton & Benjamin, 2019;Hamilton & Yao, 2018). To understand modern-and future-media behaviors, media psychology scholars must push forward in developing theories that can account for the complex interplay between cognitive, social, and algorithmic processes that characterize the modern media landscape.…”

Putting the “Me” in endorsement: Understanding and conceptualizing dimensions of self-endorsement using intelligent personal assistants

“…Consumers may resist or show skepticism toward advertising messages, but they may not know how to be skeptical of themselves. Being made aware of how persuasion techniques might operate and the cognitive biases that can impair effective decision-making is a first step in becoming a more sophisticated media user in a digital world (Friestad and Wright, 1994;Hamilton & Benjamin, 2019;Nelson and Narens, 1994). This study demonstrates that receiving brand recommendations from an intelligent personal assistant believed to be personalized to one's own personality and preferences yields higher brand attitude and purchase intention toward brands than receiving brand recommendations from a typical, but unfamiliar, intelligent personal assistant.…”

“…Several researchers have already begun to advocate for the critical importance of reflexive thinking, otherwise known as metacognitive skill, in this new digital ecology (e.g. Hamilton and Benjamin, 2019;Risko and Gilbert, 2016;Ward, 2013) and others have already begun investigating the antecedents and consequences of persuasion knowledge with online behavioral advertising (e.g. Boerman et al, 2017;Ham and Nelson, 2016;Nelson and Ham, 2012).…”

Cognition in the Internet age: What are the important questions?

“…In this vein, Storm (2019) asks how to define memory retrieval in the internet age, when something might be easily and quickly retrieved via one's smartphone but not when relying on one's own memory (see Risko, 2019, for a similar point about metacognition). Hamilton and Benjamin (2019) ask about forgetting in the internet age; for example, social media may remind one of a memory one would rather forget, and web pages with errors are cached and may reappear. It is worth asking ourselves what concepts are useful, and which may have to be modified, to capture cognition in this context.…”

“…Several of the commentaries note how new technologies often bring questions about the implications for human cognition (Hamilton & Benjamin, 2019; Russell, 2019; Yamashiro & Roediger, 2019). In effect, the question is whether “the internet [is] a qualitatively different shift in technology, or… solely the technology of the moment” (Russell, 2019)?…”