Psychological and Social Aspects of Technology
A Cornell Tech Course
INFO 5310, Fall 2016
Prof. Mor Naaman
Cornell Tech
Tue Thu, 9:30am-10:45am
Slack team (mandatory, sign in with your Cornell.edu email)
#psySocial
What is this Course?
Tech is changing the way we live our lives: the way we behave, the way we connect to others, the way we get and diffuse information, the services and resources available to us, the way we shape our views and our culture. To innovate and excel in the new tech landscape, students need a strong understanding not just of technology, but of the behavrioal and social aspects surrounding it.
This course, meeting core requirements in the Connective Media and Health Tech programs, explores the psychological and sociological foundations of communication and information technology. The course focuses on the theories from the cognitive, behavioral and social sciences that play a role in understanding people’s use of, access to and interactions with information and communication technologies. The course will examine multiple levels of analysis – individual, social, and collectives – and present multiple disciplinary perspectives. The course has these primary goals:
- Provide an introduction to theories and approaches to understanding the use of current information technologies, to identify needs that are not currently being met, and to inform the design of future IT.
- Familiarize the students with the interdisciplinary literature relevant to understanding the tech and human behavior landscape.
- Expose students to knowledge, methodologies and language from a variety of scholarly domains.
- Introduce students to ideas, as well as styles of research and writing in psychology, sociology and other relevant fields of science, with a focus on being able to understand research reports, at least at a basic level.
Key Threads
- Individual - Cognitive and behavioral science approaches to attention, perception, reasoning and decision-making.
- Social - Social-psychological approaches to motivation, language and identity.
- Social Systems - Behavioral and sociological approaches to social systems including groups, social ties, and social networks.
Week-by-week
This is the week-by-week plan. Readings for each topic are due on the first day the topic is covered. Noticed that the first day for each topic is not always a Tuesday.
| Topic | Date | Title | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8/23 (slides), 8/25 (slides) | Intro to Everything | to understand you are not just builders, and there is a lot they need to know if they want to understand the human and social aspects of Tech. |
| 2 | 8/30 (slides), 9/1 (slides) | Perception and Attention | to build systems that cater to how people perceive and pay attention to information |
| 3 | 9/6 (slides), 9/8 (slides) | Cognition | to design technology that matches people’s mental processing models and capabilities |
| 4 | 9/13 (slides), 9/15 (slides) | Learning | to design technologies that people can learn, remember, and adopt as habit |
| 5 | 9/20 (slides), 9/22 (slides) | Motivation and Goals | understand what propels people to better perform, achieve goals, and complete tasks |
| 6 | 9/27 (slides), 9/29 | Decisions and Bounded Rationality | understand how people make decisions and what biases exist when they do |
| 7 | 10/4 (slides), 10/6 | Influence and Persuasion | to design technologies that steer people towards favorable choices |
| Fall Break | 10/11 | ||
| 8 | 10/13 (slides), 10/18 (slides) | Identity and Personality | to understand how basic theories of personality and identity can inform system design |
| 9 | 10/20 (slides), 10/25 (slides) | Groups and Collectives | to use groups and collectives effectively in coordination, communication and mobilization |
| 10 | 10/27, 11/1 | Language and Communication | to build systems that effectively use the characteristics of verbal and non-verbal communication |
| 11 | 11/3, 11/8 | Social Ties | to design systems that effectively use and support different types of relationships |
| 12 | 11/10, 11/15 | Social Networks | to understand the structure and effect of the social networks that underlie media services |
| 13 | 11/17, 11/22 | Networked Experiments | to understand the influence dynamics in connected environments |
| 14 | 11/29, 12/1 | Class Presentations (Replication Assignment Due) |
Class Requirements
Reading and Quizzes
The reading materials are mostly papers and book chapters. All the readings are required, and you will be asked submit a response (or quiz) to the reading every week before or in class. In a response you may be asked, for example, to reason about each reading, provide critique and extensions, and comment about its significance in the context of technology. In a quiz you may be asked about details of the reading and/or the preceding week's class material. Your two lowest reading response grades will not be counted. These grades include weeks where you missed the response (e.g. late or absent, with no questions asked). Late submissions or arrivals will be treated as missing. Non-submissions beyond the allowed lowest grades will receive a grade of zero.
Presentations
In randomly-assigned teams, each student will take part in two class presentations, each about one of the readings. Your two presentations will be on different weeks. Each presentation will summarize the research, highlight related work, and discuss the implications for technology. Exact instructions and guidelines are below.
Assignment: Replication
The only major assignment is a Replication experiment, where you will be replicating a behavioral/social science experiment of your choice. Details forthcoming, but start thinking about experiments you'd like to run! This assignment is performed in groups of 2 or 3.
Attendance
You may miss up to one class without notice, and no more than two absences are acceptable, even with excuse. In any case, please do let the instructors know if you happen to miss a class session, either in advance or retroactively.
Participation
Class participation is part of the grade, and is function of the quantity and quality of your class discussion. Not being able to discuss the readings in class will cost you participation points.
Exams
There are no exams. Yay!
Grades
Your grade breakdown (G for Group grade): 30% Class presentation (G) 25% Reading responses 20% Participation 25% Replication assignment (G)
Note: the average grade in this class is likely to be a B or B+. You will need to really stand out to get an A.
M.Eng and MBA students may take the class for a grade or pass-fail with prior approval. All the requirements for class would still stand. To get a passing grade, a student would need a B- and above grade for each of the class components.
Class Presentations
### Requirements and proceduresClass presentations will be assigned by the teaching team.
The basic presentations should be 15 minutes long, strictly enforced. The presentation must touch on:
- The main theory/argument of the article/reading (1-2 minutes)
- The methods used to support the argument, if any (1-2 minutes)
- The implications of the article for different technologies.
- Additional scholarly articles that are related to the reading.
These additional articles could be a) describing a related theory, or b) offering a critique of the original article, or c) showing how the theory presented in the article is used in a technical system. The teaching team will be available to provide some pointers and directions as needed; you will need to approach us by the Friday before your presentation, at the latest, to get assistance.
While the presentations are done in groups, each presentation should be 100% coherent and consistent. In other words, presentations that are clearly based on "split work" where each partner is respobsible for her/his own part are unacceptable. Work together to create a flowing, coherent and meaningful presentation!
Your presentation grade will be based on the quality and clarity of your presentation.
The teaching team
Mor Naaman
Instructor, Associate Professor
mor -AT- jacobs.cornell.edu
@informor
Where to find him: on campus
When to find him: email to schedule time to chat
TBD
Teaching Assistant