Un espace interactif pour l'étude des interactions homme-machine. In A. Bürgi-Schmeiz et. al. (Eds.), Proceedings of the European Conference on "Computer Science, Communication and Society: a Technical and Cultural Challenge (pp.323-333), Neuchâtel, 22-24 September 1993, Swiss Informaticians Association and Swiss Sociological Association.
Michèle Grossen: Université de Lausanne
Luc-Olivier Pochon: IRDP
In some studies concerning computer use in school, we have examined how people perceive computer capacity to assist learning (CAL) or to enhance human abilities (LOGO system for example). These studies have recently led us to develop a theorical framework with the aim of relating psychology to computer science. Such an attempt has been possible by referring to two currents of cognitive development: the cultural approach (deriving from Vygotsky's work) and the psycho-social approach (deriving from Piaget's).
According to the cultural approach, computers may be considered not only as a technical instruments, but as semiotic tools whose meanings are constructed in specific cultures and social groups. For example, new models in physics and mathematics are constructed with the help of computers and are threfore increasingly computer dependent. Computers aren't new tools which explain old theories, they constitute an integral part of new theories. Observation of this kind raise the following questions: does the use of the computer and softwares elicit new cognitive abilities? If so, what are the specificities of these abilities? And what are the cultural and social conditions which may account for such developments?
The psycho-social approach brings some answers to this issue. In fact, processes like those of socio-cognitive conflict and intersubjectivity have been described as two main conditions to promote learning and development. In the field of human-computer interaction, programmers' accounts on their own work show that human-machine conflicts are also likely to occur and have an effect on the way software is designed. According to the psycho-social approach, these conflicts may be considered not only as cognitive conflict between the user's and the computer's rationalities, but as socio-cognitive conflicts involving different social partners: the user, of course, but also the programmer, the computer designer and even more the partners who have given some relevance to a particular computer use. This extension of the notion of conflict shows that social processes referring to the partners' interpretations of the computer use have to be taken into consideration. One of our main hypothesis is, therefore, that in order to understand how computers may foster new abilities, it il necessary to consider the intersubjective processes at work in any human-computer interaction.
From this general framework, our studies of human-computer interactions will focus on two different levels:
1) The interactions between the users, varying the interactional patterns according to the number of partners or the respective level of expertise of each partner for example.
2) Interactions between user and other partners (designers for example) through the use of the computer, describing the confrontation of the different rationalities wich are involved.
Our concept of "interactive space" accounts for the original constructions which emerge from the interaction between designers, users and the charasteristics of the computer. Our hypothesis is that this interactive space gives way to a so-called "Added Intelligence", namely an intelligence which is not in the human mind, nor in technological tools.