Creating a Roadmap for Design Neurocognition Research: What are the Priorities

Sunday 3rd July, 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm

Workshop Chairs

Laura Hay (University of Strathclyde., UK) | laura.hay@strath.ac.uk

John Gero (UNC Charlotte, USA) | jgero1@uncc.edu

Tripp Shealy (Virginia Tech, USA) | tshealy@vt.edu

Workshop Committee

Kosa Goucher-Lambert (UC Berkeley, USA)

Julie Milovanovic (UNC Charlotte, USA)

Aim and Content

Design neurocognition is a growing research area, seeking to develop an integrated understanding of the cognitive processes and underlying brain activity involved in designing. The field emerged relatively recently but is steadily expanding. Recent years have seen an increasing number of neuroimaging studies on design, a special issue in the area at Design Science, and design neurocognition has become a key focus of the Cognitive Design Science (CDS) Special Interest Group (SIG) within the Design Society.

The research agenda for design neurocognition is still being shaped. Previous workshops in this area at DCC 2020 and ICED 2021 have broadly explored neurocognition approaches, challenges, and purposes, with the aim of initiating community dialogue on what a shared agenda might look like. Based on the outputs from some of these workshops, an initial roadmap for design neurocognition research has been produced by the CDS SIG, illustrating the potential direction of travel over the short, medium, and long term. The roadmap highlights many open questions and challenges to advance the field and sustain its growth and impact as a scientific discipline.

The goals of the proposed workshop are to: (1) develop a shared roadmap for design neurocognition; (2) identify areas that the DCC community views as key priorities for advancing the field; (3) create actions/means needed to pursue these areas; and (4) network with a growing community of researchers interested design neurocognition. Discussion towards these goals will revolve around four key themes running through the roadmap: methods, theory, impact/applications, and research infrastructure. As shown in Figure 1, there are a variety of topics to explore within each theme, although the workshop is not limited to these.

Workshop participants will gain an understanding of the state of the art in design neurocognition, network with other researchers in the area, and have the opportunity to contribute their views to help shape the agenda for the field (including a working paper – see next section).

Workshop Format

Short presentations from community members currently working on key issues covered in the roadmap will be solicited prior to the event, to stimulate dialogue. If you wish to present, please contact Laura Hay laura.hay@strath.ac.uk

The workshop will open with an overview of the goals, a demonstration of a relevant instrument to measure neurocognition, the roadmap, and the topics to be explored, followed by presentations and brief questions. After a break, participants will be split into groups to discuss the three roadmap themes (methods, theory, impact/applications, and

research infrastructure), before reporting back on the proposed priorities for advancing design neurocognition in the coming years and associated actions/means required to pursue these.

1. Introduction – 10 mins

2. Demonstration – 20 mins

3. Presentations – 1 hour

4. Break – 15 mins

5. Group discussion focused on workshop questions/topics – 1 hour

6. Feedback on key priorities and actions/means identified by groups – 40 mins

7. Close – 5 mins

The outputs of the discussion will be captured through an appropriate means (e.g. Miro board for a virtual workshop, or physical post-its and mind maps for an in person workshop). If possible, the discussion will also be audio recorded (given participants consent). This information will be used after the workshop to produce a working paper on the design neurocognition roadmap and community priorities that will be circulated to all workshop participants for review and input before publishing on the CDS SIG’s website.