Foundations of Forgetting and Remembering (WP2 - ForgetIT 1st year review)

Concise Preservation by combining Managed

Forgetting and Contextualized Remembering

Professor Robert H Logie

University of Edinburgh

WP 2 Presentation

Foundations of Forgetting and

Remembering

ForgetIT 1st Review Meeting, April 29-30, 2014

Kaiserslautern, Germany

ForgetIT Project GA600826, 1st Review Meeting, Kaiserslautern, April 2014

Role in ForgetIT

Interdisciplinary role

– use conceptual foundations of human

memory to inspire design of digital

managed preservation and forgetting.

WP Objectives

• Conceptual foundations of remembering and forgetting:

individuals and organizations

• User expectations

• User evaluation

Focus of Year 1

• Human memory to inspire design of managed forgetting.

• Initial review of conceptual foundations

• Develop methods for user model, user expectations and evaluation


Objectives of WP and Year 1 Focus

PUBLIC EVENTS

PERSONAL EVENTS

Working Memory

Overloading Memory

Getting information off the internet is like

taking a drink from a fire hydrant

Information overload and accidental deletion


We might also

accidentally delete

emails that we need

If the balloon popped, the sound would not carry since

everything would be far away. A closed window would

prevent the sound from carrying. Since the whole

operation depends on the flow of electricity, a break in

the wire would also cause problems. The fellow could

shout, but the human voice is not loud enough to carry

that far. A string could break on the instrument, then

there would be no accompaniment to the message. The

best situation would involve less distance. Then there

would be fewer potential problems.

Reducing memory load with context

Reducing memory load with context

Preservation and Forgetting

Information no

longer needed

A B C

Forgetting

irrelevant detail

Forgetting without

context



Information no

longer needed

Digital Storage

Fire Hydrant ProblemA B C

Forgetting

irrelevant detail

Forgetting without

context



Information no

longer needed

Digital Storage


Forgetting

irrelevant detail

Preservation with context support



Information no

longer needed

Digital Storage


Forgetting

irrelevant detail

Managed digital preservation and forgettingArchive or

Delete



A B C

Preservation with Relearning


Relearn Relearn Relearn

Porco=PigPorco?

Oca=GooseOca?

Porco?Oca?

Giorno=DayGiorno?Porco?Oca?

Sedia=ChairSedia?Giorno?

Oca?Porco?Sedia?

Try this rapid re-learning technique for Italian

Porco=PigPorco?

Oca=GooseOca?

Porco?Oca?

Giorno=DayGiorno?Porco?Oca?

Sedia=ChairSedia?Giorno?

Oca?Porco?Sedia?

Quickly re-learn before you forget

Learning is easier

Working Memory

Knowledge Base

PERCEPTION

Episodic Memory Semantic Memory (Events) (Knowledge)

Perception

Currently activated episodic and semantic memory

Working Memory

A conceptual model of human memory

Rapid and

substantial

forgetting

Preservation for

context

Updated <1 sec

Knowledge Base

Episodic

MemorySemantic

Memory

Role in Preserve-or-Forget architecture

ForgetIT Architecture

Working Memory

Knowledge Base

PERCEPTION

Episodic Memory Semantic Memory (Events) (Knowledge)

Currently activated episodic and

semantic memory

Working Memory

Human Memory


Semantic

Desktop

TYPO 3

Middleware Archive

Knowledge Base

Episodic

Memory

Semantic

Memory

Perception

WP 2 Highlights from year 1

Use case – Digital photographs

• Surveys of digital photo use and user expectations

• Behavioural study of keep/delete photo decisions

• Link photos with recall of details

Aim of Surveys

Get data from large number of people on

How they categorize and manage photos

How they store and preserve/delete photos

Expectations for a ForgetIT system

Inform user requirements (WP9 and WP10)

Feature extraction and contextualisation (WP4 and WP6)

Build online and offline user pool for further evaluation


Surveys

Pilot Survey

Wide range of questions, getting qualitative data to help

frame questions

Test for shorter version during Photograph Study

Online Main Survey

Launched Dec 2013: English, German, Swedish, Italian,

Turkish, Greek, Czech and Chinese in preparation

http://tinyurl.com/forgetit-personal-preservation


Overview of Main Survey

Taking Photos:

how often, with what, of what

Searching and Managing Photos:

common solutions, common problems

Storing and Preserving Photos:

importance of preservation; how people store photos; which

precautions do they take

Free Comment:

about survey and ideas for preservation

About Yourself:

includes native language and country because we expect diversity

Keeping in Touch:

The Recruitment Vehicle


Highlight 2- Survey of photo use and organisation

Online Pilot Survey (D9.1): long;

qualitative data that shaped later multiple choice questions

Paper and Pen During Festival Study: pilot of shorter version,

Observation of particpants

Final Survey (D2.2): ~ 10 minutes, multiple languages

N=146

N=74

N=386

and counting

Main Findings from Pilot Survey

Worry about losing digital photos, regardless of age

Most respondents ‘tech-savvy‘ - early adopters?

Care a great deal about privacy

Most use file managers to manage photos.

User has to remember:

where to put what

what has been put where

Particular problem with retrieving older photographs

Expectation of digital help with preservation


Keeping and Deleting Photos:

The Edinburgh Festival Photograph Use Case


Keeping and Deleting Photos in the Festival Study

DELETE

Aesthetics/

Random

DELETE

Not Typical

DELETE

Surplus

KEEP

Typical,

Subject

Matter,

Personal

KEEP

Reaction,

Personal,

Aesthetics

KEEP

Aesthetics,

Sharing


OVERALL FOLDER CATEGORY USE:

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

PERFORMANCE

BUILDINGS & DETAILS

VIEWS AND SCENES

FRINGE CONTEXT

LOCATION CONTEXT

RANDOM/PERSONAL

OTHER

TIME 1

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

TIME 2

TOTAL NUMBER OF TIMES CATEGORY USED AS FOLDER LABEL

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

T1 KEEP T2 KEEP

ME

AN

PR

OP

OR

TIO

N O

F U

SE

AB

LE

PH

OT

OS

KE

PT

PROPORTION OF USEABLE PHOTOS 'KEPT', BY GROUP

DAY

WEEK

MONTH

Proportion of useable photos kept by group

People consistent when deciding

what to keep, even a month later.

On average, participants deleted one

additional photo at time 2.

Why do People Keep Photos?


Analysing Human Recall – To Link with Photos

Time 1 (after 1 hour)

“ Erm…I can remember…the er…somebody who I

gather was a guy in kinda a warrior’s costume / he had

his helmet taken off / and just sitting down / having a

smoke / which was pretty good. / Erm. And then a

real building. / Erm, just up from…just kinda between

the… Castle and where we started off. / Which I’d

never actually seen before, / even though it’s obviously

been there 500 years, / it was pretty cool. / Umm, I

saw a motorbike / I really liked. / Er, and there was

whisky shops / and um…there was also…there was

some girl with / a massive/ sign / saying “The End is

Nigh”. / Which was pretty good. / Um. Yeah. A lot of

that kind of stuff, / just a lot of street performers / I got

a lot of leaflets as well. /”

Time 2 (after 1 week)

“There was…I remember one guy who was like

dressed up as some sort of monster, / sitting down /

just having a smoke / which was kinda cool. ….. /

and then there was erm… / there were some people

half doing a show, / I don’t exactly know what it was /

but it was girl with / a big / placard on… /

And it said “The end is nigh”. / Which was pretty funny.

/ Erm…I remember…that…and then… /

so that and then, / I kind of wandered around / and

looked in a few whisky shops. / I saw a motorbike / I

quite liked.…. / ”

Edinburgh Festival Study- 72 volunteers taking photographs. Keep-

delete decisions and interaction with human memory (D2.1).

Internet surveys of photograph use and user expectations. Pilot

(D9.1) and final version (launch Dec 2013) in multiple languages.

http://tinyurl.com/forgetit-personal-preservation

Literature review on personal and organizational memory and

forgetting (D2.2). Identified key features for digital preservation.

Identified cognitive perspective, behavioural perspective, social

perspective of organizational memory

Common threads: dynamic and reconstructive nature of personal

and organizational memory to reflect in the conceptual models.

Highlights in Year 1


January 2014: Robert Logie: Invited keynote " Working

Memory: Theory, Application and Technology" Taiwan

Society for Cognitive Neuroscience.

February 2014: Robert Logie: Invited keynote “Working

memory, cognitive training and managed digital

forgetting”. Invited keynote for Kyoto Programme on

Psychology and Education

Maria Wolters, Elaine Niven and Robert Logie (2014):

The Art of Deleting Snapshots. In: Proceedings of the

ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Human

Interaction 2014, Toronto.ForgetIT Project GA600826, 1st Review Meeting, Kaiserslautern, April 2014

Publications

Thank you for your attention

A Message to ForgetIT from Sherlock Holmes

“I consider that a person’s brain originally is like a little

empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as

you choose. A fool takes in all of the lumber of every sort,

so that knowledge which might be useful gets crowded

out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things. Now

the skillful person is very careful as to what is taken into

the brain-attic. There will be nothing but the tools which

may help to do work, but of these there is a large

assortment, and all in the most perfect order…… It is of

the highest importance not to have useless facts elbowing

out the useful ones.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1887)

– Sherlock Holmes in ‘A Study in Scarlet’


Develop personal conceptual framework - T2.2

Photograph use and user expectations, multiple countries - T2.2

Analysis and follow up of personal recollections - T2.4

Evaluate PIMO in real life settings – T2.4

– conference and Edinburgh Festival

Use-Case studies – Spielwarenmesse and AKO Holding – T2.2

Operationalize, evaluate and fine-tune organizational conceptual

framework... - T2.5

...utilizing three case settings (Oxford, British Library, Centropa NGO)


WP 2 Plans for year 2

Foundations of Forgetting and Remembering (WP2 - ForgetIT 1st year review)

Technology

Transcript of Foundations of Forgetting and Remembering (WP2 - ForgetIT 1st year review)