In April, thanks to Pump Priming funding from the faculty and the Research Staff Development Fund, Mark and Adam travelled to the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology (NTNU) to receive training on a Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (FNIRS) headset and to run participants through a collaborative design cognition experiment.
Previously, the group had conducted neuro-cognition experiments using Electroencephalography which has significant challenges with motion artefacts and signal noise. FNIRS is generally considered to be more appropriate for design-cognition experiments due to the small amounts of movement typically associated with design activities and FNIRS’ ability to be resilient to this.
After receiving training, Mark and Adam were able to run 14 participants through an experiment that saw participants undertaking constrained and open design tasks with physical and digital lego. The objective of which, was to determine whether there are observable neurocognitive differences between physical and digital prototyping.
Mark will return to Norway in June to complete running participants through the experiment with the aim of conducting analysis and writing up the results of the paper through the summer for submission in the Autumn.
In addition to the study, Mark and Adam were able to enjoy some (apparently) uncharacteristically sunny days in Trondheim and visit TrollLabs for a cultural exchange.
Thanks very much to Prof Martin Steinert for hosting us and to Henrikke Dybvik, Asbjørn Svergja and Pasi Aalto for their assistance and participation in the collaborative study.
