Visible Thinking: A Distributed Cognitive Process to Self-Manage Cognitive Load

Abstract

To make informed decisions, U.S. Army leaders must process large amounts of information, filtering it for relevance, and then synthesizing it to understand the operational environment. Identifying relevant information and processing the interdependences of that information can be cognitively challenging. This report summarizes recent literature related to reducing cognitive demand and increasing understanding of complicated information. The construct of visible thinking is introduced as a distributed cognitive process that reduces cognitive demand by externally representing thoughts in an observable manner to support further thought and communication. Visible thinking helps disperse information through underutilized processing channels to integrate information and develop new insights. The goal of engaging in visible thinking is to make more informed decisions by better understanding complicated information.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2021
Accession Number
AD1124593

Entities

People

  • Jared J. Peterson

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Accuracy
  • Behavioral Sciences
  • Chemistry
  • Cognition
  • Cognitive Science
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Computational Processes
  • Data Analysis
  • Education
  • Educational Psychology
  • Environment
  • Human Behavior
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Instructions
  • Instructors
  • Literature
  • Military Research
  • Psychology
  • Social Sciences
  • Students
  • Systems Engineering
  • Thinking
  • Training

Readers

  • Computer Vision.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.