Managing experiments on cognitive processes in writing with HandSpy

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2013

Authors

Carlos Monteiro (Author) Other; Jose Paulo Leal (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Computer Science and Information Systems

Vol. 10

Pages: 1747-1773

ISSN: 1820-0214

Publisher: ComSIS Consortium

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 4 Citations

Scopus - 6 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Computer and information sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-006-JVB

DOI: 10.2298/csis121130061m

Abstract (EN): Experiments on cognitive processes require a detailed analysis of the contribution of many participants. In the case of cognitive processes in writing, these experiments require special software tools to collect gestures performed with a pen or a stylus, and recorded with special hardware. These tools produce different kinds of data files in binary and proprietary formats that need to be managed on a workstation file system for further processing with generic tools, such as spreadsheets and statistical analysis software. The lack of common formats and open repositories hinders the possibility of distributing the workload among researchers within the research group, of re-processing the collected data with software developed by other research groups, and of sharing results with the rest of the cognitive processes research community. This paper describes the development of Hand Spy, a collaborative environment for managing experiments in the cognitive processes in writing. This environment was designed to cover all the stages of the experiment, from the definition of tasks to be performed by participants, to the synthesis of results. Collaboration in Hand Spy is enabled by a rich web interface. To decouple the environment from existing hardware devices for collecting written production, namely digitizing tablets and smart pens, Hand Spy is based on the InkML standard, an XML data format for representing digital ink. This design choice shaped many of the features in Hand Spy, such as the use of an XML database for managing application data and the use of XML transformations. XML transformations convert between persistent data representations used for storage and transient data representations required by the widgets on the user interface. Despite being a system independent from a specific collecting device, for the system validation, a framework for data collection was created. This framework has also been highlighted in the paper due to the important role it took in a data collection process, of a scientific project to study the cognitive processes involved in writing.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 27