Abstract:

Our experience of the world relies on perception and meaning making, which involve brain processes that evolve throughout our development. The interaction between perception and thinking (cognition) varies with context and age, and awareness of these processes could facilitate the educator’s understanding of how brains function in a variety of ways, in diverse contexts. There has been increased reliance on digital platforms for learning: when individuals use technology that matches the brain’s way of working, the result is comfort, attention and engagement, and smoother interactions, even for challenging tasks. When we work on a digital platform, we are aware of the task, but we are not aware of the background (a form of context) and its effects on our work. However, digital design has yet to take into account how the brain processes the background, how it affects the active task, and how this processing changes with age.
This study is ongoing, and the focus of this presentation is not centered on its results, but rather, on the theoretical trajectories of the study’s design, which provide deeper insight into how context (background) can influence task performance while using digital platforms. We take a developmental, perceptual-cognitive processing approach, to better understand how basic perceptual context interacts with our cognition, and how this evolves across development. We address how to use perceptual information and its background elements to capture and keep the engagement of school-age children and teenagers, by matching how they see and process information. The goal is to maximize comfort and engagement at every age, by considering backgrounds in designing learning opportunities that actually match what a developing brain can process, which could challenge how information is presented and shared. This approach could lead to reframing how interfaces are conceptualized, designed, and implemented. Through this presentation, participants will learn about how perception and thinking interact as we develop and age, and how to take them into account in designing platforms. Next steps of the project involve addressing the findings and implementing changes to platforms.
This work is supported by ASPIRE grant #AARE20-233.

Keywords:

Perception, Cognition, Child Development, Age, Context, Comfort.